Rossetti Poems

Soeur Louise de la miserecorde

Soeur Louise de la miserecorde

• Themes of death, desire and nature

• Also symbolic of how she never had kids

• Nora and Torvald fading love

“Oh death struck love, oh diskindled fire.”

“But now the days are over of desire.”

No thank you John

• Female rejection

• Nora and Dr. Rank/ Nora and Torvald

• Feminist themes

“I have no heart? -Perhaps I have not.”

“You know I never loved you John.”

Goblin Market

• Sisterhood- Nora and Mrs Linde

• Nora leaving her family

• Challenges the fallen women archetype

“Talked as modest maidens should.”

“For there is no friend like a sister.”

“To strengthen while one stands.”

Maude Clare

• 1 rhyming couplet per stanza - One woman can have Thomas

• Loss of purity represented by lillies and fallen leaves

• Nora and the sacrifice of male relationships

“Take it or leave it as you will, I wash my hands thereof.”

“Here’s my half of the golden chain you wore about your neck.”

Winter my secret

• Setset

• Stanza 1: 3 rhyming couplets- secret impenetrable

• Last stanza, uneven rhyming. Makes it playful

• Nora and her secret

“Only my secrets mine, and I won't tell.”

“I wear my mask for warmth.”

Remember

• Example of true love, loss and memory

• Juxtaposes Nora and her farce of a relationship with Torvald

• Repetition of remember serves as a symbol of a fading memory

• Memory of what they thought was a good relationship

“Better far you should forget and smile.”

“It will be late to counsel then or pray.”

From the Antique

• The burden of women/ a need to escape

• Mirrors Noras life

• Broad commentary on the societal expectations of women

“I wish I wish I were a man.”

“We’re nothing at all in the world.”

“Doubly blank in a woman’s lot.”

Echo

• Opposes Ibsens realism

• Focuses on the longing/ desire to have love+ connection

• Similar to Nora and her longing for a perfect relationship

“Come back to me in dreams.”

“Oh dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet.”

A Birthday

• Themes of freedom and joy (Birds)

• Celebration of love and nature, expressing the joy and beauty of being in love.

• Opposes Ibsen with it’s imagery of nature

“My heart is like a sleeping bird.”

“Is come my love is come to me.”

In the Round Tower at Jhansi

• Love and death/ sacrifice are intertwined

• Rossetti setting aside religious beliefs for the strength of love

• Juxtaposes Torvalds reaction+ his so called love

“It is not pain thus to kiss and die.”

“Not a hope in this world remained.”